p.132 Keeper Rulebook has a whole chapter on the rules for chases. This was wholly new for 7th edition. p.414 Keeper Rulebook has a Summary of Chase Rules. The chase rules has some nice ideas, but a fair number of people don't use it because of the improv nature of it. It's also a bit abstract.
Before 7e, most people just did an extended test, for example requiring PCs to make 3 DEX rolls to get away. This was of course also very lackluster.
The best implementation of the new Chase Rules that I've experienced was from Heinrich D. Moore's The Great Trap. Instead of making up the chase on the fly, he made cards for each location describing the Hazards / Barriers for each location. So, instead of making it up on the fly, he thought about it earlier and designed it.
The problem comes in when you get an unexpected chase. As a GM, you expected some sort of combat as the resolution, but the PCs decide to run for it. Now, you have a chase situation and you forgot to prepare one, so now you've got to put your improv hat on and try to make an exciting chase.
Do you break out the Chase Rules? Is it worth the time and effort? Does switching to the new chase rules break immersion? Does spending a few minutes re-reading the rules kill the pace of the game?
CoC 7e Chase Rules:
Pros:
Codifies how to do chases so it's consistent between GMs.
Handles groups of individuals in different locations.
When done properly, it works great and becomes cinematic.
Cons:
Chase Rules look abstract and is a different subsystem that has to be learned.
Rules look complicated with many steps.
Requires heavy lifting from GM. GM either needs to plan ahead or have great improv skills.
Done improperly, it just looks like dots on a sheet of paper.
What if you want just a quick and dirty resolution?
I recommend going back to the extended test, but borrowing some of the ideas from the Chase Rules.
I'd go in DEX order and ask each Player what their PC would do. If they're running for it, make them roll DEX rolls. I also ask each PC, when it's their turn, if they're sticking with the other PC or scattering. Sometimes the PCs are all running for a car; sometimes they're scattering, hoping that some of them would get away. If they're hiding, make them do Stealth rolls. If they're climbing a tree, Climb rolls. Jumping a ravine, Jump rolls. Swim across a river, Swim roll. Once they've started running, you may ask for CON rolls to see if they tire out instead of doing repeated DEX rolls. In any case, anybody who fails become targets of the Chaser. Ask all the PCs who failed their rolls what their Luck is, the Chaser goes after the PC with the lowest Luck. The unluckiest one gets attacked. If everyone made their rolls, then the Chaser still goes after the PC with the lowest Luck. The Chaser may then have to make a skill check to catch up with the unluckiest PC.
For the next round, I'd go through the PCs again asking what they're doing. Again have them roll skill checks, if they want to do the same thing again (which they might do as they might have picked their highest skill to get away), you may switch to a CON roll to see if they tire out. If the Chaser is still occupied (hasn't killed the unlucky PC yet), then the PCs get a reprieve. Otherwise, the Chaser goes after the next unlucky PC who failed their skill check. Repeat this until you've decided the PCs have gotten away (I generally go with the rule of three, 3 successes and you're out of there) or the Chaser has taken care of all the pesky kids (investigators). PCs who may have hidden or climbed a tree (stationary targets), might still get targeted, depending on their levels of success and number of successful skill checks, all at the GM's discretion.
Fumbles will draw the attention of the Chaser.
That's my simplified Chase Rules.
Instead of making the GM do the heavy lifting, put part of the burden on the Players, they decide what their PC does. Their skill rolls determine if they get away or not. Lowest Luck determines who gets targeted by the Chaser.
I felt the games were ok. My favorite was the modern Japanese scenario due to the table dynamics and the fresh setting.
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10/13 Fri, 10am-2pm (took 3 hrs)
The Causality Trap
System: CoC 7e
GM: Benjamin Wenham
4 Players: Neal T, Sam I, Lorraine A D, Morgan Hua
The Causality Trap is a short Hard SF/investigative horror scenario in which the investigators are tasked with investigating the wreck of humanities first FTL ship.
The Prometheus, humanities first manned FTL craft has failed to return from its maiden interstellar voyage to Proxima Centuri. Now, the crew of the Sisyphus (the Prometheus sister ship) have been scrambled to find out what happened to the Prometheus and its crew. [This is a playtest for a forthcoming module]
Very Hard SF. This a logic puzzle where having some familiarity with knowledge of Analog SF level of science fiction would help. Not a pew-pew type of game. This is more like Solaris or Stalker.
That said, I enjoyed the game for what it was.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
We jump to Proxima Centuri and find the Prometheus disabled and missing several sections of the ship and an unexpected automated probe from Earth. The first thing we do is send back information we've gathered and a status report. After repairing our ship, we discover we're 5 years in the past, FTL takes negative time! The probe triggers a flashback where we remember seeing it 5 years ago. It had mysteriously arrived on Earth with images of the Prometheus.
GM also gives us another flashback where we learn that a giant storm wiped out the east coast of the US and killed many people. After some calculations, my PC figures that if we send a message back, it'll arrive in time to evacuate the East Coast and save many lives. When I try to send that message, the laser relay fails and we notice our communications tower had disappeared. Sending a message back would cause a paradox, so paradox prevention erased our communication tower from reality. The Prometheus is also missing their communication tower and their FTL drive. We conclude that the Prometheus tried to communicate with home and tried to jump back home.
We gain access to the Prometheus SysOps and found that the crew is missing and there are voids inside the ship that matches the number of crew members. The missing sections of Prometheus aren't sheered off, but is filled with a black void.
We checked the probe and found that it was put in sleep mode by the Prometheus crew and it would wake up in 10 years and jump back to Earth with it's video of the Prometheus.
So, our solution was to have the probe sleep for 5 years and send a laser message back to Earth explaining the FTL time travel issues, paradox preventions, and to send us supplies that would last us 10 years.
Not much later, a probe shows up with provisions and entertainment. We wait 10 years and then jump back to Earth, so we'd return after we'd left, without causing a paradox.
At one point, I said, "Why don't we just look for a habitable planet and just stay there?" The GM said, "That would end the scenario." Oh, ok. Also the GM pointed out some background info on our character sheets at key points, depending on that for our character motivations. I dislike that as I always think character motivations are up to the Players to interpret. Scenario designers shouldn't depend on background info to drive the plot. Background info is just for flavor. Acting on it or not is up to the Player, not the GM. Novelists can make their characters dance to the author's will, GMs shouldn't do that. PCs should be under the Players' control, that's what makes it a roleplaying game vs a novel.
Join Keeper Heinrich Moore as he runs "The Bottle Episode," a classic-era scenario for Call of Cthulhu written by Benjamin Wenham for the Miskatonic Repository. Set in dream-shrouded Kingsport, investigators look into the sudden disappearance of lawyer and amateur historian Joshua Abbott from a seemingly locked room. Where has the missing attorney disappeared to, and what might it have to do with a near-decade old maritime disaster?
This scenario was written by the GM of my earlier game session, The Causality Trap.
I enjoyed the investigation aspects of this scenario and it was fun. Though later analysis does bring up some issues which I'll point out in the spoiler section.
Heinrich is consistently a good GM and did a great job running this.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
My issue is that in the ending we had where we failed our freeing ritual and broke the bottle, all manner of hell broke loose. If we had just broke the bottle in the first 10 minutes of the game, we would have been better off. So, the only thing that prevented us from doing this was that the GM told us, all the PCs, that we loved Ships in Bottles and treasured them. Again, the scenario design required that the PCs thought in a specific manner dictated by the GM. 4 random PCs who were asked to investigate loved Ships in Bottles, a bit of a stretch. If we were PCs who belonged to a Ships in Bottles club, that would have made more sense. Then you'd have to have to come up with a reason for the club to investigate the disappearance of Joshua Abbot.
I also suspected that the scenario was designed such that the ritual should fail because that causes the giant reveal, without it the scenario would be pretty flat and anti-climatic.
Another issue is that we were chasing down clues related to the history behind The Spirit of Providence (the Ship in the Bottle). We found out afterwards that was all a red herring. That 80% of our investigations were pointless. The quicker clue trail was finding the maker of the bottle, a dream bottle / dream catcher. It would have been better if there was a stronger tie between the bottle maker and the ship. It was just a coincidence that the ship in the bottle was The Spirit of Providence.
With some tweaks, the scenario could have been stronger.
4 Players: intothewild, yoSteph, ZanderGM, Morgan Hua
In the year 1877, a shocking trio of murders rocks the mining town of Heck's Peak, with locals blaming a mysterious pioneer caravan, though players may find more sinister things afoot...
GM had a terrible microphone and sometimes we were only able to hear about half to one third of his words. So, that was a bad experience.
I thought the scenario was marginal. Had a good table of Players, but that didn't overcome the negatives.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
PCs are strangers that arrive in town and for an unknown reason, the sheriff deputizes us to investigate 3 murders, his deputy is sick. WTF. This makes no sense at all. You'd think trusted locals would be deputized instead. The sheriff sits in the jail and we go investigating the murders by ourselves. Still, WTF.
We talk to town's folk and check out the crime scenes and bodies. The local townies were torn apart by something big and dangerous the previous night. That morning a caravan of deformed strangers had left town. The locals think the caravan strangers committed the murders and left town.
We track the caravan and the trail spits off into the badlands (caravan) or large goat-like hooves that went into an abandoned mine. After some discussion, we go into the mine. We run into ghouls and have a fight in the dark tunnels. Upon exiting, we blow up the mine entrance (after finding a single stick of dynamite) and vow to return in the morning to collapse it completely.
In the morning, two people from the caravan return to town to buy a new wagon wheel. After talking to them, they seemed a bit fishy (Deep Ones fishy and maybe even a Shoggoth Lord), hinting that one of their members at the caravan might have been responsible for the town deaths, so we put them in the town jail.
We go to the mine, find evidence the entrance was reopened, and use up a case of dynamite and blow it up, causing multiple tunnels and part of the mountain to collapse. Then we head to the caravan and bring the suspicious guy back into town and found that the two caravan people had killed the sick deputy and escaped.
Then the caravan people show up and there's a face off between the caravan people and the sheriff. At that point, we decided to nope it out of there. Behind us, a big fight erupts between Deep Ones and a hoard of Ghouls.
It's bad when the GM has to voice two groups of NPCs and his audio keeps on randomly cutting out. One of my rules is you never have NPCs talk to NPCs while the PCs are just the audience. Basically, the GM is talking to himself and we're just passively listening. A bad idea.
And why title the scenario "A Murder" when it starts off with 3 murders? Shouldn't it be "Murders at Heck's Peak?"
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
10/15 Sun, 11am-3pm (took 3 hrs)
Unseasonable Blooming and Minuet
System: CoC 7e
GM: Michael Reid (mjrrpg)
4 Players: Jo S, Alex S, Denice K, Morgan Hua
The investigators travel with a friend to his mountainous hometown of Hodaka City, home of the ancient Hodaka Shrine and its enshrined God of Learning. Their trip is interrupted by chilling phone call, sending them on a search for a missing person that connects modern day social media with ancient history.
Modern day Japan - Pregens provided - Beginners welcome
Fairly straight forward scenario, but I had a lot of fun. Great table of Players, great GM. My favorite of the 4 games I played in.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
NPC's sister calls her brother, she's in distress and the phone goes dead. She was with a friend and either was at the Hodaka Shrine or a restaurant after visiting the shrine.
After some social media and google searches, we decide to go to the Hodaka Shrine. It's closed, so we trespass, talk to the priest in charge and get ahold of CCTV footage and see two figures go up the mountain path to the adjunct shrine. After some searching, we think they went further up the mountain. It's winter, but the mountain is unseasonably cold. And there's a blooming plum tree somewhere up on the mountain that shouldn't be there.
We notify the police, they tell us to go home or wait at the bottom. One of the PCs has a stroke of genius, slips their cell phone into one of the police backpacks, so we can listen in to them. We let them go up, then we follow behind them. Some horrible disaster befalls the police.
We learn about the history of the shrine and about a demon and a required ritual needed to imprison it. On the trail, we improvise modern ritual items to re-imprison the demon in the plum tree.
Fun scene: my PC puts his hand against the tree and yells at another PC to stab his folding knife into my hand and into the tree, so fresh blood anoints the blessed knife that stabs the tree. We had blessed the knife earlier via a cellphone call.
I had a good time except one of the games I signed up for, I got gatekeepered by the GM and was strongly asked to give up my seat. That pissed me off because I used one of my rare signups to get into that game and by the time I got kicked out of the game, all the other games I was interested in were filled up.
BigBadCon required proof of vaccination (you flashed your card, but they didn't verify who I said I was), negative Covid test (honor system), and masks. I did appreciate that there were free KN-95 masks and free Covid test kits. I haven't caught Covid yet and don't want to. I had avoided gaming conventions for the last several years. I do know that due to a vocal few who protested conventions that required vaccinations and masks that some upcoming conventions had decided to remove all restrictions and only rely on fed, state, and local restrictions. I wore a mask most of the time (3 days in a row) except when I was drinking and eating either alone or a distance from people. Wearing a mask and playing and running games wasn't much of a problem. Now I wonder why it is such an issue. It wasn't much of a burden. I'd rather wear a mask all day vs catching Covid. BTW, a new strain of Covid was spiking in the Bay Area.
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9/29 Fri 9am-1pm (4 hrs)
Galadriel's Fellowship
System: Savage Worlds
GM: Hanju Kim
5 Players (3 of 5): David J (Dusan-buri-Ghân), Toby S (Peregrin Took), Morgan Hua (Amrothos)
Attendee/Player Age: 18+
Safety Tools: Open Door Policy
Characters: Provided
From across the free lands of Middle Earth, you have gathered to Lothlórien. There, it is said, a fellowship is being formed to resist the Dark Lord whose forces threaten the land. Lady Galadriel needs those with pure heart and gallant spirit for the task.
This game is an alternate history of Middle Earth - one where the fellowship formed at Rivendell was broken as it left the Mines of Moria. After Merry was struck by an orcish arrow while leaving, they struggled vainly to save his life and were overtaken by orcs at night. Those who survived came through wounded and grief-stricken. In sympathy, Galadriel steps up and gathers heroes from across the land.
This is an action-filled and dramatic game about a new set of characters trying to bring the One Ring into Mordor, distinct from the originals. It mixes cinematic action and soulful drama.
Basically, it is what it is. This is the LotR alternate history edition. I think I was the least knowledgeable at the gaming table. I've only read The Hobbit and The LotR trilogy and seen the movies, including the extended editions. Toby was able to distinguish between book and movie differences and asked what was true in this world.
We were short 2 players and our group lacked in fire power, so most of the time we did a lot of fleeing and hiding. But in the end, we did drop that ring into the volcano.
Unfortunately, most of the beats were predictable, but afterwards, the GM said that the path we could take to Mordor and through Mordor depended on which PCs we picked, based on their local knowledge. Our group stuck too closely to the movies. So, we didn't get enough surprises nor new wonders.
I'm not sure running the B-Team into Mordor was the best scenario idea. I think a totally different mission would have been more interesting.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
So, we took an Elven boat/canoe down the river, hiding from Orcs, using branches as camouflage to hide us and make the boat look like floating refuse. At one point, we realized we were being followed, we saw a specific tree trunk several times. So, we unmoored it the next morning before heading on our way. At one point, we captured Gollum and made him lead our way into Mordor. Once reformed, we called him Smeagol.
The only surprising and fun bit was when our ring bearer, Peregrin, went AWOL to look at the Oliphants when we were outside the gates of Mordor.
We took the Stairs of Cirith Ungol, where Peregrin accidentally put on the ring at the top and alerted a Ring Wraith. We fled into tunnels and ran into Shelob. Ran some more and we disguised ourselves as Orcs and entered lava tubes to get into the heart of Mount Doom.
Dusan-buri-Ghân did a last stand against some trolls as Amrothos grabbed Peregrin and carried him toward the lava. Peregrin refused to destroy the ring and wanted to go back and save Dusan. Amrothos grabbed the ring and tried to destroy it. Peregrin and Smeagol tackled Amrothos and after an extended fight, Amrothos was able to crawl to the lava and shove his hand into it.
Peregrin and Smeagol dragged Amrothos' badly burned, but still alive body, out and Eagles came to medivac the surviving heroes to safety.
Eventually Peregrin and Smeagol went across the Western Sea as previous ring bearers.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
9/29 Fri 2-6pm (4 hrs)
Sorrow in Tsavo
System: Call of Cthulhu 7e
GM: Bridgett Jeffries
6 Players: Isaac C, Laura B, Matt C, Ryshili, Zack H, Morgan Hua.
Attendee/Player Age: 18+
Safety Tools: X-card, Other
Characters: Provided
Tsavo translates to "a place of slaughter." Welcome to 1898 Kenya. The British are building a railway bridge over the River Tsavo to solidify their position of trade and wealth in the region. The Investigators serve as leaders to the project. In addition to social dissonance and illness within the camp, a pair of man-eating lions known as "The Ghost" and "The Darkness" are stalking and brutally killing members of the construction crew. Gold Bestselling Scenario on the Miskatonic Repository.
Content Advisory! Slavery, torture, body horror, gore
Bridgett has loads of enthusiasm and is a great cheerleader for the Players. In this scenario, I thought the PCs and NPCs were well designed and the scenario serviceable. I had fun and was not disappointed.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The PCs are a variety of leaders on the railroad bridge project: Project Leader, Engineer, Doctor, Police Chief, Head of Labor, Big Game Hunter.
The game starts with a staff meeting and malaria and morale issues due to the lion attacks are brought up and action items are approved. I was Police Chief and one of my chief concerns was the low morale and defections of workers fleeing the worksite.
I recommend that the Big Game Hunter make a demonstration to show her prowess. We call an all hands meeting. We placed a can of tomatoes at 300 feet and she blows it away with her elephant gun. After that impressive demonstration, morale was boosted.
Investigations reveal where the malaria is coming from. Also the lions are of incredible size. That something is firing giant poison quills en masse that somehow make those hit hallucinate and become docile.
Following the missing workers leads us to an oasis and a creepy-otherworldly boab tree. The lions with poison quills are there too. The PCs who see this barely escape.
Back at the camp, a wealthy white slaver shows up, trying to sell a body. After a confrontation, we learn that beneath the boab tree is a cavern where the missing people are feeding the boab tree with their essence.
That evening, the two lions attack the camp. We get lucky and the Hunter one-shots one of the lions with an elephant gun. I one-shot the other lion with a Winchester rifle.
PCs enter the boab tree and plant explosives inside and out. I was able to save 4 prisoners from beneath the tree. We blew it up.
The plot is fairly straightforward.
I think the best parts of the game are PC interactions. Friction between the PCs and conflicting agendas made the game interesting.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
9/29 Fri 8pm-Midnight (4 hrs)
Green Knight: Quest for Honor
System: Green Knight
GM: Robert G. Reeve
5 Players: Alandra H, Arthur G, Brian V, Gabriel F, Morgan Hua
Attendee/Player Age: 13+
Safety Tools: X-card,Lines/Veils,Cut/Brake,Open Door Policy, Script Change
Characters: Created at the table
The official RPG of the A24 film, where occult folklore and uncanny forces become more real the farther you stray from the castle. A knight, sorcerer, hunter, bard, and noble must decide between virtue and vice, between honor and dishonor.
I had never heard of this game, so I googled it and decided I really wanted to give this a try.
One funny thing, one of the reviews complained about how in each scene, the result of choices didn't make any sense and you'd get punished for things or rewarded in a very unfair or caprice way. Others mentioned it was worth playing, but it was like a murder mystery, there's no replayability.
I've played King Arthur Pendragon, read Mallory, am versed in Fairy Tales and Fables. I figured, I had a better chance of puzzling out the given scenes. I was right.
What's interesting about the system is it's sort of a pick your own adventure, but round robins through the PCs via an initiative roll. So, if the first PC decides a course of action, the whole party is taken down that path. The action is resolved and story text is read. Then the next PC determines what to do next. So, the first PC to act completely sets the tone and thrust of the encounter.
I really enjoyed the game and it was worth staying up past my bedtime to play (and an unexpected freeway shutdown and detour on my way home that night).
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
I think the issue is that old stories are episodic and there is no throughline through the stories. In the game, you run into 3 set pieces and then the final encounter with The Green Knight. Each set piece is a test of a person's honor. For my character, the Knight, I did what I thought was right and actually, almost everything turned out as I expected.
The only scene where I thought I screwed up was when a whole bunch of ghosts showed up, but in the end, my choice was correct.
Those that approached the set pieces as D&D where you kill things and take their stuff, you get punished. What else do you expect? So, I think that's were some reviewers were confused, they didn't understand the genre.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
9/30 Sat 9am-1pm (4 hrs)
An Amaranthine Desire
System: Call of Cthulhu 7e
GM: Morgan Hua
5 Players: Anne H, Heath B, Jason M, James T, Steven K
Attendee/Player Age: 13+
Safety Tools: Lines/Veils, Open Door Policy
Characters: Provided
It is 1895, and on the English Suffolk coast a smuggling ship approaches the shore. Assisted by locals from the nearby village of Dunwich, the crew begins unloading its cargo as a storm grows around them. Dunwich used to be a thriving port, but much of the city was claimed by the sea hundreds of years ago. Now, all that remains is a shadow of its former self. In the darkness beneath the waves, a powerful force remains, keeping a shard of the past very much alive. The investigators, as the smugglers, find themselves entering an echo of the night that sealed the fate of the city. Pre-gens provided. Warning: The setting is actually pre-1895, so do not expect this to be Cthulhu Gaslight nor Cthulhu Regency.
I had a really good investigation table and had a good time. They uncovered every clue and aspect of the mystery. They solved this pretty well using a good combination of skills.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
This group and the two GenCon Online 2023 games I ran, took 3 iterations before solving the mystery. When I play tested it to make sure it fit in a 4 hour time slot that group also took 3 iterations.
I had a table with mostly veteran CoC Players and knew you had to ask NPC questions to get answers. And once you got an NPC to talk to you, you keep on asking questions until you're satisfied.
They used new iterations to inspect locations before they were burned and found that all trails led to Levett.
This group was very clever, they never met the Priestly Ghost and convinced all interested parties to leave Dunwich without the crown.
The first time anyone got hurt was when they jumped out of Levett's Manor's second story window and a PC fumbled and broke his ankle, causing all of the PCs to suffer the same fate. Oops. That iteration ended quickly as the city guards easily chased them down.
The next iteration, they put Levett's horse cart outside the window and used it to escape with Sarah.
2 PCs were lost to the void. 3 PCs survived.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
10/1 Sun 9am-1pm (4 hrs)
The Expanse RPG Intro
System: AGE System
GM: OnlyPlayWizards, John Bultena
5 Players: Eric D, Jason T, Peter P, Tezra R, Morgan Hua
Attendee/Player Age: 18+
Safety Tools: X-card, Lines/Veils
Characters: Provided
Based on the sci-fi novel series by James S.A. Corey, The Expanse is an extrapolation of humanity's progress towards the stars with a hard science twist. The Expanse Roleplaying Game utilizes Green Ronin Publishing's Adventure Game Engine (AGE) utilizing just 3D6.
This game will introduce players to the AGE system and the political intrigue as Earth, Mars, and the Belt strive to carve a place out in the Solar System and beyond. No experience necessary!
Shannon played in The Expanse in 2018 and told me he had a horrible time and had issues with the system. I love the TV series and because of that, I read all the books. I was actually able to get a ding-n-dent copy of the game for only $10, but haven't read it nor played it, so I was excited to try this out and see if it was as bad as Shannon said.
Well, I actually had a great time.
The GM has actual plays with guest stars from the actual TV series. But instead of reprising their TV characters, he wanted them to pick any character they wanted to play instead. His YouTube channel is here.
Years ago, Shannon ran Dragon Age for us which was the first AGE system. The Stunt die and lists of stunts were interesting at first because there were Social stunts in addition to combat stunts, but then we found out they were pretty limited and you generally use the same stunts over and over again. And when we reached 5th level, we got too powerful for the written scenarios and we easily defeated every encounter. At that point we put the game away.
For The Expanse, there were several pages of Stunts, but I saw the same issues. There's only a few Stunts per tier. The GM told us, he can take care of the Stunts for us. He basically interpreted and picked the Stunts for us and this sped up die rolls immensely and kept the flow of the game at a good pace. I think if we had to pause, ask the GM about each Stunt, and pick multiple things from the Stunt table, it would have killed the flow.
The Expanse has a Churn Tracker. It's reminiscent of 7th Sea's Death Spiral, except it's for the whole party. Each scene increments the tracker and every Fortune spend increments the tracker. At various points, a GM intrusion/twist happens. So, this Churn Tracker serves the same purpose as Mödipius's Momentum and Doom in their 2d20 system.
I mentioned Shannon's experience years ago and the GM said that he was told of bad experiences by other Players during an earlier game at BigBadCon. He did say that he doesn't really run The Expanse RAW (Rules As Written) and that AGE shouldn't be run RAW.
The scenario was from the core book. The GM had 9 pregens, a variety of Earthers, Martians, and Belters.
My verdict? The Expanse works fine, but you need an experienced GM.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The setting is Tyco Station years before the proto-molecule is discovered. Several people have disappeared from Tyco Station. The PCs are hired to find and retrieve them.
We wound up with: 1 Earther Executive (played by me), 2 Martians (1 security expert, 1 sciences), 2 Belters (1 laborer, 1 OPA fixer).
The PCs snooped around the station and hit their contacts for info. This of course drew the eyes of various factions. Coverups were uncovered and the PCs had to do various illegal things to accomplish their mission.
We wound up stealing a ship and assaulting an asteroid.
My PC had no combat skills. I was the Face character. At one point, the other PCs got in a bind, and I had to pick up a discarded rifle from the floor. I rolled a 16 (3d6) and blew one of the bad guys away. "Sweeet! This is so easy to use, you just point and shoot. I should invest money in this company!"
In the end, we brought back the two we were hired to find, one voluntarily (by me), the other not (by a Belter). Brought back various prisoners and other hostages, murdered some scientists (those Belters are murderhobos), and blew up the asteroid (Belters again).
My Executive got rewarded and bumped up his Income from 8 to 9. Sweet! (The other PCs had Incomes of 2 which were bumped up by one also 😊).
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
10/1 2-6pm (4 hrs)
An Amaranthine Desire
System: Call of Cthulhu 7e
GM: Morgan Hua
5 Players: Chelsea, Ennio, Grace N, Matt C, Rachael G
Attendee/Player Age: 13+
Safety Tools: Lines/Veils, Open Door Policy
Characters: Provided
It is 1895, and on the English Suffolk coast a smuggling ship approaches the shore. Assisted by locals from the nearby village of Dunwich, the crew begins unloading its cargo as a storm grows around them. Dunwich used to be a thriving port, but much of the city was claimed by the sea hundreds of years ago. Now, all that remains is a shadow of its former self. In the darkness beneath the waves, a powerful force remains, keeping a shard of the past very much alive. The investigators, as the smugglers, find themselves entering an echo of the night that sealed the fate of the city. Pre-gens provided. Warning: The setting is actually pre-1895, so do not expect this to be Cthulhu Gaslight nor Cthulhu Regency.
I had a great group of role players, but a number were new to CoC. This group took longer to figure out the mystery, but brought up a lot of surprises for me and due to the roleplaying and banter, a humongous amount of fun.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
This table only one veteran CoC Player, Matt, the rest were fairly new. I think the Players didn't know that if you got an NPC to talk, you should keep on asking questions until you run out of them. Several times, they would overhear an NPC, then ask one question, get their answer, and then just leave. And I'm sitting there with more clues. That's pretty funny.
They also did some unexpected things that the Players in the 4 other runs never did.
They panicked the village of Dunwich by accidentally making them think the French were attacking. They arrived at fairly late at the burned out windmill and when the communication problem hadn't been resolved yet, the French character tried French. The villagers fled back into the walled town and raised the alarm. This started a whole string of French invasion jokes.
They got a lucky break when they were fighting Hawkins who missed every attack and jumped out of the windmill's second story window to land in a handcart filled with twigs and hay, and escaped. So, the next time, they decided to move the handcart and then sneak up on him, but Hawkins wound up killing his attacker instead. So, then they moved the handcart and did exactly the same thing in the previous iteration, and he landed badly and broke his ankle, then they were able to capture and question him.
They never met the Coven of Witches. They never met the Ghostly Priest. In the end, they let Sarah take the crown.
This group took 4 iterations.
1 PC was lost to the void. 1 PC drowned. 3 survived.
After running this 5 times, I have a few suggestions for GMs running this in the future. 1. I looked up the kings and queens for 1287, 1895, 1753 and got pictures of period coins. The PCs coins should be accepted, but the locals would note their foreign make, but saying, "Silver is always welcome here." I always have an NPC, a gate guard or local, feel someone's shirt sleeve and ask if it's silk, mistaking the unknown fine weave for the foreign fabric which they have never seen before. 2. I got various pictures of The Three Crowns of East Anglia on buildings and stained glass windows. It should be commonly seen, so I never show them the pictures until they hear about The Three Crowns. Then I show them the pictures and tell them that you've heard the stories before, but never thought about them that much. Then I tell them the story. 3. Arson in 1287 requires pots of animal fat (tallow?) and dried rushes, twigs, or hay. Hawkins would require a handcart to bring all this material to the windmill. 4. I always mention the homespun quality of the local's clothing. The PCs clothing are mistaken for higher class foreign make. 5. I don't do all the tests at the beginning of the scenario. I always just ask for one pilot boat roll to see if the rowboat over turns. Then a single swim roll, those that fail start drowning and must make a CON roll to avoid 1d4 damage. Then a rogue wave hits the shore and slam into the two PCs on the shore (I don't bother having them join the rowboats) and they have to make swim rolls also. Once everyone has done their rolls, I do the underwater bell ringing, then I drop them in the forest, dry and unhurt. 6. The Edge of the World tests are a cumbersome. I do a POW test and DEX test on failure to see if they let go, but didn't bother charging the MP cost (the first time I did, it didn't matter and there was excessive die rolling). I also limit the tries to save themselves by making the DEX test increasingly harder (regular, hard, extreme, impossible) each round they are untethered. If you do the increasing difficulty, then you probably don't even need to charge them MP. If you want to charge them MP, I'd go with 1d4/1d6 instead of the odd 1d4/1d4+1/1d4+2. Once through the void bubble, I drop them back into the sea. This time even further from the shore due to the additional erosion of the shore. I make them all make swim checks. If they fail their swim check, they must make a CON check or start drowning (1d4 damage). Once they start drowning, they continue to automatically take 1d4 damage until they succeed in a swim check. They just need to make one swim check to make it to shore. 7. As a kicker, once they get onshore, wet and cold, with a storm raging throwing lightning and thunder all over, they see some steady lights, more steady than gas light. And I describe the modern Ship's Inn with modern signage, plate glass, and materials. When they enter, the barkeep always says some pleasantry about it being nasty outside, "Hello, Come in out of that nasty weather," then turns to someone inside and comments, "Marge, I didn't know the Dickens Festival was here." And I tell them the year they've arrived in. "Welcome to 19xx." 8. I assume Dunwich's city walls were gone by 1895, either washed away or repurposed by the locals as stones for other buildings. I always bring up the gates and walls as unusual when the PCs see the burning windmill. I don't tell the PCs about the burning windmill directly, I always mention the glow in the sky as if there's a giant bonfire in the distance. Only when they want to detour to the fire do I show them the windmill picture and depending on their distance, the description of the villager's clothing. 9. During character selection, I always warn that the French PC would face a fair amount of discrimination. If the Player was ok with that, then they can pick the PC.
When I review all of Nameless Horrors, after I've run all the scenarios, I'll move the notes out of this section into that book review.
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7/6 Thurs 5:30-9:30pm.
Rich Food
System: Call of Cthulhu
GM: James - inquist_games
Players: Morgan Hua (Dr. O'Grady), LakshnessMonster (Garcia - Student), Steven W - relnec (Dominguez - Gang Member), Lauren - geolaur (Helen Bloom - Homeless Drug Addict).
For 2-4 players, ages 18 and older. This game is beginner friendly.
Pre-generated characters will be provided.
It is a cold and rainy December in San Diego, California. The investigators are volunteers at the St. Germain’s homeless shelter. The shelter is at maximum occupancy and the doors have closed for the night when there is frantic banging at the front entrance. Three regular guests have finally arrived, only they are missing extremities and have chunks of flesh bitten off. They tell a tale of cannibalism and corruption in society’s elite. The investigators must unravel a dark conspiracy and face the price of greed. Pre-gens will be provided. VTT: Roll20
Content Warnings: Cannibalism, gore, and possible temporary loss of player agency. There are no instances where an investigator may unknowingly eat human flesh. Additionally, there are themes of homelessness, drug addiction, homophobia, assault, and police brutality with some NPCs and Pre-gen backgrounds.
I enjoyed this scenario. It was quite creepy and the investigation was very interesting.
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The misdirection worked really well in this scenario and made the investigation key in figuring out what was really happening. A number of scenarios are just bread crumb linear plots. This time, you really had to examine everything, put the pieces together, and understand what was going on.
Three guests show up at the homeless shelter with various injuries. They tell us of an abduction by police and an odd party attended by rich folk (sort of a Eyes Wide Shut situation). The rich folk attacked them with their teeth, eating chunks of flesh off of them. They were then taken to a lower level holding room and they were able to escape.
We actually located a possible location of the building and did some breaking and entering and found no evidence they were held there. There were no traces of anything untoward happening there. We did find some scant traces, but it wasn't conclusive. We weren't sure if nothing really happened.
The PCs returned home and there were some spooky things that happened to each of us individually. Signs and portents.
The next day, things happened that made two of the homeless people rich. And we discovered they had lied to us and it was an auto-cannibalism ritual that made them rich. The third homeless person, Marissa, had asked the other two to help with her ritual and they got sucked into the ritual against their will. She only got $500 because her injuries were slight. We decided that she was going to try again and eat more herself this 2nd time around.
We located her at a development site set up for demolition. Before we entered the site, we had the foreman disconnect the explosives from the detonators.
As a precaution, two of the PCs put cotton in their ears (it didn't work). I injected a paralyzing agent in my jaw muscles and Dominguez's; this I hoped would prevent us from chanting and biting ourselves. We rushed the ritual. I failed my save throw and tried to gum myself. The others made their save throws. Garcia was able to disable Marissa with a spell (he secretly had spells) just before a dark entity could set off the explosives.
The misdirection about rich cannibals really worked. When Theo, one of the homeless who had lost two toes earlier, suddenly wound up in the hospital and had his foot amputated, we found two lawyers paying him off and we really thought he had just sold the rest of his foot to them. In actuality, a driverless car ran over his foot multiple times and he was paid to keep quiet by the startup that owned the car service. What really happened was the ritual made a contract with a supernatural being that made the car malfunction, which in turn gave a windfall to the victim.
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7/7 Friday 5:30-9:30pm.
The Diner
System: Horror the RPG (powered by Year Zero Engine)
GM: DontStopMeNow
Players: Morgan Hua (Bill - Head Chef), NoobishIndianGirl (Shelia - New Waitress), WishMoon (Mike - Diner Owner), Steve W - relnec (Det Hank - Retiring Detective), James - inquist_games (Brenda - Senior Waitress).
For 4-5 players, ages 18 and older. This game is beginner friendly.
Pre-generated characters will be provided. Please contact GM after player assignments are announced.
Horror the Roleplay Game is a new ttrpg utilizing the Year Zero Engine. For this game we will be playing through one of the scenarios in The Dinner - a collection of scenarios for Horror. Introducing "The Diner Horror RPG Scenario Book," straight out of the twisted realms of the 1980s! Get ready for a heart-pounding, spine-tingling adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat! "The Diner Horror RPG Scenario Book" has been meticulously designed for cinematic play, perfect for those one-shot gaming sessions. With pre-generated characters at your fingertips, you and your friends can dive right into the action, learning and playing the scenarios in one thrilling sitting. Immerse yourself in the sights and sounds of the 1980s horror scene, as VHS-style aesthetics come to life in every chilling detail. Dust off your Walkman and get ready for a nostalgic journey filled with retro charm and adrenaline pumping excitement.
Content Warnings: Diner meatloaf, horrible puns, maybe spiders, also maybe slime, and maybe a vampire, diner waitresses name Sheila and Brenda
The system was basically Alien RPG, but in a present day setting.
The scenario was pretty simple, but it was the Player interactions that made this a fun game. Loads of great roleplaying.
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Actually, if you replace the spider infection with Xenos, you'd actually get an Alien game. The only difference was the setting. The spider bite would infect you and then transform you into a spider-human hybrid. There were also different sized spiders: normal, softball-sized, and huge.
Basically, it starts raining spiders. Heavy metal band members rush inside the diner with spiders all over them. Two were bitten and have a bad reaction to the spider bites. We barricade ourselves inside. Hijinks ensue between characters. One of the NPCs transforms. We find that weed protects you against the spiders. And outside is a van with a tin of weed.
The fun bits are the interactions between characters. One of the waitresses, Shelia, was having an affair with two of the band members and in the end, she wound up shooting both of them (killing blows). The retiring detective and head waitress wound up protecting each other and marrying each other. The chef and diner owner bravely ran out to the van to get the weed, but wound up driving away (failed panic rolls), only to return and run over a giant spider. The sequence was really, run over the spider, back up, panic, back up some more, try to get the car go forward, but back up even more. Finally, got the car into gear (succeeded panic roll) and crushed the spider, saving both Hank and Brenda.
One really funny line was when I mentioned that Shelia should have an affair with the remaining band member, she said, "I'm done with dating musicians."
My PC's secret agendas were weak sauce though, much like some of the bad agendas in Destroyer of Worlds. I don't know what the other PCs agendas were and whether they added to the game's chaos.
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7/8 Saturday 8am-noon
Le Dossier Mönch
System: Call of Cthulhu
GM: Joseph - SpoJino
Players: Morgan Hua (Said Kouzham - Lawyer and Moroccan Nationalist), Andy R - RandomAnswer (Sergeant Henry Evans - British Expeditionary Force), misty_lady (Yelena Volkov - Archivist and Egyptologist), princejvstin (Voira da Veiga - Aristocrat and Refugee Advocate).
For 3-4 players, ages 18 and older. This game is beginner friendly.
Pre-generated characters will be provided. Please contact GM after player assignments are announced.
Morocco, 1939: After France declared war on Nazi Germany, the French Protectorate in Morocco seized all German assets in the territory. This seizure included the French military police (the Gendarmes) taking control of the Mönch Textile Factory in Casablanca. While doing so, they discovered a cache of documents that left them befuddled. A contact in the French Foreign Legion has reached out to you for help with some clandestine digging into this factory and the cache of documents currently in local, civilian police possession. Nazi Content: This scenario includes fictionalized images and handouts with Nazi and Nazi-like symbols. Nazis are unambiguous antagonists in this scenario and will not be portrayed as anything other than working against the interests of the investigators. This scenario is a modified version of a chapter from the upcoming Sons of Singularity “The Blessed and the Blasphemous” campaign. Scenario written by Patrick Chandler.
Content Warnings: Body horror, medical horror, gore, brutality, Nazis (including Nazi imagery).
Additional Safety Tools: X-Card
This game felt more like Pulp Cthulhu than purist. But I had a lot of fun anyway.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
I guess when you throw in Nazis and Nazi Experiments, a game always goes pulp.
This scenario was pretty much a straight line A, B, C finale. Introduction was a party where the PCs meet each other. We get asked to go find evidence Nazis were involved in a textile factory. We explored the factory, found horrible stuff in the hidden basement. Went over evidence the police had already confiscated. Uncovered Nazi informants and traitors. Decided to go to a French prisoner of war camp way out in the desert. Face the evil Nazi scientists who were reanimating corpses and destroyed the zombie factory.
The zombie-tank machine the Nazis were building was very Pulp Cthulhu-esque.
At one point, my PC was forging legal documents, picking locks, and making lists of traitors for the resistance. I was an "excellent" lawyer.
One of my favorite scenes was when a truck full of Nazis showed up and we hid in an alleyway. We all made our die rolls or spent enough luck. They didn't find us, but when they went back to their truck, I pulled an Indiana Jones and fired a Panzerfaust at their truck; I had picked it up from the factory's hidden basement and wrapped it in cloth to conceal it from casual onlookers. Boom! Dead Nazis.
The final fight at the prison camp was pretty good too. I shot one of the Nazi scientists. "I got your parts for you!" Blam! Yelena set the zombie factory on fire. Voira climbed on the tank and tried to open the hatch, but it was locked, so she fled from the zombies. Henry had to run back to where we hid our 2 Panzerfausts and finally used it against the zombie-tank. We then chased down the last Nazi scientist and shot him dead as he tried to steal a truck.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
7/8 Saturday 1-5pm
Viral
System: Call of Cthulhu
GM: Jeff - SeattleEgg
Players: Morgan Hua (Enoch Eakins - cameraman), Chelsea - PixelWhip266 (Corina Trench - co-host), Laura - lsnow11 (Ku Hyeon - tech/skeptic), Hilmar - hilmar_firestarter (Marco Proudfoot - host).
For 3-4 players, ages 16 and older. This game is beginner friendly.
Pre-generated characters will be provided. Please contact GM after player assignments are announced.
You take the role of ghost hunters with a hit YouTube channel - you call yourselves the Spektral Krew! You are headed to an island off the coast of Sicily to explore its very dark past. The only public information is a pixelated satellite map and a pile of redacted documents, but a little digging on the Dark Web has revealed something far more sinister. What better way to make your final push for one million subscribers than to stream the investigation live from the island! This is scenario written by Alex Guillotte and Bud Baird, published 2022.
Content Warnings: Nosophobia, Body Horror.
Additional Safety Tools: Pre-game discussion
I heard many great things about Viral and was very excited about trying it out.
This game was very creepy and fun. I would have loved to play this game for over a longer period of time, maybe 8 hours instead of the 4 we did. Wonderful group of Players. I feel guilty in that I think my character, Corina, and Marco took up most of the screen time with amazing roleplaying. I felt Hyeon was slightly odd man out. If I played Hyeon, I would have demanded more screen time as the resident skeptic.
After playing in this, I highly recommend the scenario.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The scenario is fairly straight forward. TV crew goes to haunted area, explore and get goaded to explore as much as possible because they're live streaming, so they get in deeper than what normal people would do due to a demanding audience. Then it turns into survival horror.
The island has lots of creepy areas: A bridge with lots of icons, mutated fruit trees, burned out area with candles, ash, and bone. We explored only a few areas. I can see this scenario can be much longer if the PCs explore more locations.
Most of the fun is the Players leaning into the live streaming trope of ghost hunters: Asking the audience where we should go; asking the audience to pay us in order to do stupid, dangerous stuff; faking stuff; competing media stars; wannabe media stars; getting 1 million subscribers; getting views.
I brought out the specially marked flashlights that randomly go dim or go out. Corina had a really high spot hidden and pretended her psychic sensitivity was sending her messages. Marco was a big ham.
I have hundreds, if not a thousand RPG books. I've played numerous systems and games. So, when a new game or system is published, I like to read reviews about the game or try the game out before buying it. So, reviews are a great resource. I've been burned a few times where I bought a Kickstarter and found out the game was a clunker or that the game was rushed into production and not enough thought was put into streamlining the book or a through enough editing was done.
Yes, I'm used to errata. Before the internet, game publishers were more careful about making mistakes and corrected them in newer printings. I fear, the trend these days is to push things quick to market and correct the PDF afterwards. But if you got the first print edition, you get screwed. For example Alien RPG, the first printing, Pilots don't have the Piloting skill.
My pet peeves for RPG books:
1. Not using a professional editor/proof reader. Using MSWord autocorrect and Google Translate doesn't cut it. One KS delivered a badly translated RPG. The game was supposed to be decades old and very popular in Sweden. They had an early release PDF to allow us feedback. I'm a native US English speaker and have a college degree. I sent feedback and a number of my suggestions were rejected. The response from the company? We have a friend who's a Swedish expat in the US who speaks English, we rely on that person's judgement for the final decisions. OMG. I sold my copy of Trudvang. Great art, lousy system.
And if you don't use a professional proof reader, then pre-release the PDF, so your fans can give you feedback. Arc Dream at first didn't do this for their The Conspiracy KS. I mentioned this and they happily sent out pre-release PDFs to backers. I noticed that one of the fonts that mimicked an old typewriter was too hard to read. It was atmospheric, but led to sometimes hard to read names. I sent back examples for them to look over such as J-2 vs U-2. When I got the final release PDF, I noticed that they fixed it. Can you imagine if they didn't? As an aside, Arc Dream does a great job proofreading. Minimal typos if any in their products.
2. Important Rules in the Sidebar. Sidebars are for examples and flavor text. When GMs read the core book, we read the main text and look at the sidebars later. Sidebars do not Highlight Rules, sidebars say, "Ignore me until later when you have time to read me."
3. Inconsistent phrasing. Not having a System/World Bible, so you use different names for the same thing throughout your core book. Then indexing the wrong words, so you can't even find the rule you're looking for. I'm looking at you Alien RPG. You can't find Air Supply in the index. You need to look up Consumables. And good luck on finding how Stun weapons work. It's under the detailed description of the G2 Electroshock Grenade p.125.
4. Rules in the wrong place or missing rules. See #2 & #3 above. I'm looking at you The One Ring 2e. If you buy the Starter Set, you can't play the game. Good luck on figuring out what Attribute Level is for monsters. It's not in the rules provided with the Starter Set. You need the core book p.143. The rules in the Starter Set are all Player facing rules, so all the GM rules are missing and there's no GM rule booklet in the Starter Set.
5. Renaming standard RPG terms to be cute. I prefer GM (Game Master). But there's DM (Dungeon Master), Master of Ceremonies, Keeper of Arcane Lore, Storyteller, Narrator, Director, Facilitator, etc. These are all cute and I can figure this out. But then they start renaming NPC to GMPC, etc. Hit Points to Conditions, Health, Stamina, etc. I bought Invisible Sun and I still haven't been able to read past the first book because you need to translate from Invisible Sun speak to RPG speak. It's a giant barrier to understanding the game and playing it. The excuse for renaming common terms is to be "immersive." It's so immersive, I couldn't get into it like trying to climb into a bathtub full of mercury.
6. Bad rule book organization. Making it hard to find rules when running the game. The core books are written to be easily read, but then information is spread out to various sections. The publishers don't want to duplicate info, to save page count, but when info is spread out everywhere, it's impossible to use the core book as a reference book. Mödiphius 2d20 games such as Dune and Achtung! Cthulhu were painful to use at the table. GM pauses the game in what seems like an eternity, trying to look up a rule because misapplication could probably kill a PC. And this happens multiple times during a gaming session.
RPG Game Reviews
One of my friends did a podcast. They decided to talk about Vampire RPG. During the podcast they admitted they've never played the game. WTF? How can you be opinionated about something you've never even tried? Let alone talk a whole hour about it? I've played and run Vampire before and found their comments uninformed.
Book reviewers review a book after they've read it. That is the experience of the book. But RPG books are a different animal. You need to read it and either run the game or play it to experience it. So, I have problems with RPG reviewers who just read the book and don't play it. It's like a movie reviewer who just reads the movie script. Or a book reviewer who only reads the blurb.
I understand some people make a living reviewing RPG books, so they don't have the time to run/play every publication and the output volume of their reviews is their focus. And reading massive amounts of RPG books does increase your ability to make an informed decision. But that doesn't replace cracking open the book and trying to use it in a game.
I've read mediocre reviews of a game I've played in that was very, very fun. I've also read a glowing review of a RPG, but when I looked at Reddit posts about people who tried to play the game, they found it was horrible. It read well, but played terrible. So, I now read reviews with a grain of salt and also consult other online sources, especially comments from people who actually played the game.
I also don't want spoilers for scenarios, but I want to have enough information to decide if that scenario or campaign is right for my gaming group.
So, when I do review a game or scenario, I don't do it until I've been able to play or run it myself. When I've only played it*, I would still want to read the scenario, to differentiate what is in the scenario vs any GM invented material. What's worse than saying, "Hey, that's a great scenario, I'd like to run it," and then finding out your GM invented half of the material or merged multiple scenarios to make the game that you played, so the scenario you're recommending has nothing to do with what's published.
*I want to differentiate my review of a published scenario vs my convention reports about the games I've played in. My reviews are informed opinions about a published scenario I've run, or played in and have read afterwards. A convention report is more about the experience I had. I generally do not go and read the convention scenario I've played in, unless I enjoyed it so much that I plan on running it myself.
Free League has been consistenty amazing at releasing beautiful RPG books. Vaesen are supernatural creatures invisible to normal people except for people with the Second Sight. The setting is mid-1800s Sweden with industrialization changing the world, creating a clash between urban/rural, rich/poor, industrialization/nature, locals/immigrants, seen/unseen, science/magic, upper class/lower class, church/old ways.
The conceit behind this game is that the PCs are Thursday's Children, people traumatized by a supernatural event which enabled them to see Vaesen. They belong to The Society, a group that is dedicated to investigating and solving disturbances with Vaesen. PCs also have a Dark Secret that will resurface during play.
The system is a d6 dice pool, counting successes (a 6 is a success). Most tasks only require one success. There are only 4 Attributes (Physique, Precision, Logic, Empathy) and 12 Skills (3 skills under each Attribute). The dice pool rolled is the Attribute + Skill. Various items and talents add extra dice. PCs can take 4 physical and 4 mental Conditions, but the 4th condition always Breaks the PC (either crippling the PC physically or mentally). If the PC survives the Injury, they can get some penalties or in some rare cases additional Insight just as how they got their second sight.
There was a big buzz about the game and I wanted to learn more about it. The first few times I played this game, I wasn't quite sure about it. First, I thought the system was ok, but not that exciting. Second, I thought it was almost impossible to kill a PC, so a game without threat takes away the excitement of danger. Third, I wondered whether a long series of Monster of the Week would get boring.
I wanted to get more Vaesen under my belt, so I played 5 games of Vaesen at VaesenCon. I saw enough variety from different GMs and scenarios that it assuaged my fears. I actually bought a HC of the book and read almost all of it. I skipped the monster section, so I could still play games without having spoilers ruin them.
Reservation 1: The System. It's fine, but one thing that works really well is if you want to Push a roll, you take a Condition. That's a big deal. You only have 4 physical and 4 mental HPs. Also each Condition reduces your dice pool for related tasks on a 1-for-1 basis. It makes Pushing and taking Conditions a major risk factor. This raises the tension level during play.
Reservation 2: Hard to Kill PCs. Some monsters can cause 2 or 3 damage and it can go up if it rolls multiple successes. This can Break a PC in one hit. If the PCs lose the fight or abandon the Broken PC, that PC is basically dead. Seeing a Vaesen can cause 2 Fear, that's 1/2 of your mental conditions. So, Vaesen can be a very deadly.
Reservation 3: Lack of Variety. There are 21 Vaesen in the core book. There are more in published supplements and fan based supplements. Also the Vaesen are based on Folk and Fairy Tales. I bought a copy of Swedish Folk Tales for inspiration. And for people who memorize Monster Manuals, the GM can make up anything they want to switch things up. Most Vaesen are almost impossible to kill without knowing their secret weakness. I'm also using the Society's HQ, a rundown castle full of cobwebs and mysteries, which the PCs need to cleanup, upgrade, and explore. I'm also tying in various character's Dark Secrets and fallout from their actions when they solve a mystery. In my Upsala, I've highlighted the social pressures from the various social classes in the city.
Why is the basis of the game Monster of the Week?
Well, one of the ways of getting an Experience Point (XP) is meeting a new Vaesen, so that's designed into the game. Another is confronting a Vaesen. Each PC gains XP at the end of each session. Every 5 XP allows the PC to bump up a Skill or add a Talent.
Another basis of the game is developing your HQ. The Society (as a whole) gains Development Points (DP) by learning about Vaesen. DPs are spent upgrading the HQ which gives benefits to all the PCs. DPs are gained at the end of each scenario. But fixing things and opening up sealed rooms and areas of the HQ comes with its own danger and more opportunity for adventure. The problem is when you play random one-shots, you never see this aspect of the game.
I've decided that I wanted to make developing the HQ and exploring Upsala as roleplaying opportunities. To make the game environment richer vs just Monster of the Week. Dark Secrets also allows the GM to personalize the various horrors that show up, making it very personal. I've run multiple sessions so far and I'm really enjoying bringing in reoccurring NPCs and city locations.
I also have a deep love of folklore from various cultures, so I plan in using this knowledge in my games.
Overall, Vaesen is turning out to be a really good game. No wonder it's doing so well in the market place.
Most of my sessions are 3 hours long. Different groups take different times, but my run times are here for comparison purposes.
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The scenario in the core book:
The Dance of Dreams
Location: A roadside inn, 3.5 hrs south of Upsala, Sweden
Pages: 16
Run Time: 1 session Hook: Olaus Klint, a stranger, requests the PCs meet him at the Witch Cat Inn where a Shadow Theater play will be held.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The Plot: A Revenant has mistaken the current occupants of the inn and the PCs as its enemies (either missing or long dead). It has possessed and affected the dreams of Sophia, the innkeeper's daughter, who performs a shadow theater play re-enacting his murder. Once that is done, it tries to kill the innkeeper and the PCs. Vaesen: Revenant (p.150, core book)
This is pretty straight forward, the PCs need to locate the Revenant's body which is in the garden root cellar. Then carry it over a graveyard wall and bury it on consecrated ground. It's more of a race between it trying to kill everyone and the PCs carrying out the needed tasks.
Hints as to where the body is and the solution is in Nora's Journal which is in her sealed bedroom.
The other events don't matter: Olaus Klint and the Rosenbergers, Nora's whereabouts and death.
My issue with this being the only scenario in the core book is that it's a kill the monster of the week scenario, where the only solution is to destroy the Vaesen. IMHO, this sets the wrong expectation for what this game is.
Q: Equipment rules seem confusing. p.88 Equipment in the Headquarters. It states that you keep the equipment you started with plus one newly acquired item or weapon. Does this mean you keep only 1 extra item or 1 from each completed adventure?
A: One extra item apart from your starting equipment. Period.
This is to prevent the PCs from becoming pack rats. This is for equipment that gives any type of bonus. Normal items that give no bonuses can be carried. You don't want the PCs to have a giant inventory with multiple bonuses for everything.
At the start of each adventure, the PC would have their starting equipment + 1 item they got from a previous adventure. In the Preparatory stage (p.73 Preparatory Equipment), they can then spend resources to buy other equipment that gives pluses. During the adventure (p.73 Shopping During the Mystery), they can also buy equipment. At the end of the adventure, the PCs would keep their starting equipment + 1 item (from any equipment that wasn't used up). If the PCs had upgraded their castle, they can keep more equipment based on the upgrade specifics (p.89 Armory, p.90 Weapons Corridor, p.91 Cellar Vault). As a GM, I'd let them permanently replace starting equipment with something they would rather carry instead. The replaced items are lost.
I'm tempted to explain the missing items as either being borrowed by other Society members, ghostly thievery, or just being used up between adventures. You can turn the quest for the missing items into an adventure.
Q (C): How do you play The Sight in your games? While I love the idea and its potential for generating exciting play, I'm confused about how to make it work in game.
If I understand it right, The Sight allows the PCs to 'see' Vaesen others can't see - as the book says, 'you have the ability to see vaesen – even when they are trying to remain invisible.' But reading the excellent descriptions of each vaesen in the book, there are very few that seem invisible by default. So what difference does The Sight actually make?
A (MH): I assume they're all invisible or have a glamour that makes them look like normal people or normal things (trees, rocks, a bird, a cat, a deer, etc.). Only people with The Sight can see their real form (even when invisible) or when the creature wants to be seen. Some people might catch a glimpse of their real form from the corner of their eye or during trauma or in dreams. Those are my thoughts on this.
Most if not all Vaesen have Enchantment which includes invisibility (Distort Vision, p.118 core book).
Q (CD): I really don’t like “Monster of the Week” type games where the monsters are invariably the characters’ enemies, and the adventures are resolved by combat with the monsters. So, in Vaesen, is it necessarily the case that the Vaesen are the characters’ opponents? Or rather, do the characters sometimes help the Vaesen? And where there is conflict, is this ever resolved by negotiation rather than fighting?
A (MH): In the core book, it tells you it's almost impossible to kill a Vaesen. In some cases, you must some how figure out the secret, secret method. That said, if you go toe to toe against one, a lot of your PCs will get broken. And there's a chance of a TPK.
I do think a number of the published scenarios do veer away from the above philosophy or at least forget to reiterate this and lack guidance for the GM. So, the default of kill the Vaesen is what happens. Even the scenario in the core book is a vanquish the Vaesen scenario. I wonder if it would have been better if the core book scenario was different and required some sort of deal making solution instead. Then that would illustrate the philosophy of the game better.
I've played in a variety of Vaesen games at online conventions run by various GMs and a fair number of them are kill the Vaesen (monster of the week). Very few are let's make a deal.
Q (CD): Thank you, that provides a different perspective to a lot of the answers here, and I’m really grateful for it. How difficult do you think it would be to alter the adventures so that a different (non-violent) resolution was possible?
A (MH): I'd start off with a scenario that doesn't require vanquishing the Vaesen to set the tone for the whole series you're running. The issue with the core book scenario, The Dance of Dreams, is that it's a vanquishing scenario and there's no way around it.
I would mix in Vaesen banishing/killing scenarios with others, but I'd start with a few non-vanquishing scenarios first, to help set the mindset of the Players in your gaming group.
For how to alter the adventures, the problem is when the PCs figure out which Vaesen it is, they're given the "cheap" ritual to banish it. So, they think that's the only solution. Maybe make it harder for them to identify the Vaesen, so they'll need to get eyes on it or talk to it to differentiate it from the whole hosts of what it can be, so they must talk to it. Don't let them do a Learning roll until they know "enough," which is up to the discretion of the GM. When roleplaying a Vaesen, think about what it wants and why it's unhappy and what would be satisfactory to it. Some Vaesen are not reasonable, some are vengeful for the wrong that was done to them. A number may require punitive damages in addition to compensatory redress before they back off.
Some Vaesen are powerful and they know it and are unreasonable. In one scenario, my PCs asked a powerful Vaesen to remove a curse (from a different Vaesen) from one of the PCs. The PCs were willing to do a one-for-one trade to remove the curse. My Vaesen required a three-for-one and didn't budge. Eventually, the PCs gave the Vaesen three NPCs (to be entranced as its slaves) to remove the curse from one PC.
Q (MH): I find that having the PCs do a Learning test to uncover which Vaesen it is and to figure out the required Ritual seems anti-climatic and too easy. Is there a better way to do this?
A (MH): My experienced investigators try to narrow down what possible Vaesen fit the mystery even before they leave Upsala by looking through The Society's library. After a successful Learning test, I hand out a list of known Vaesen that fit the known parameters. So, instead of giving the exact Vaesen, I give a list of possibilities.
Some GMs hand out the Vaesen Custom Card Deck and let the Players flip through the cards, or hand out a subset of the cards. The only issue is that this isn't an exhaustive list of Vaesen and if the Vaesen is new or unique, you won't have a card for it. Some people hand out the Johan Egerkrans art book. But you run into the same problem if it's not in the book. Though, I would say that the cards and the book are the Vaesen that The Society has documented, so if it's totally new, then they might have to do research locally to uncover what exactly the Vaesen is and the required Ritual.
Once the PCs narrow down the Vaesen to the most likely suspect, I tell them the Ritual associated with it. I just tell them, "When you had looked up the possible Vaesen earlier in the library, you remember (or had written down) the specific Ritual for this Vaesen. It was ..."
